1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to prepaid phone service and more specifically to a system and method of providing a single prepaid account for both wireline and wireless phone service.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Many individuals use both a wireline telephone, for example a home telephone line, and a wireless telephone or other wireless device for communication. Often different entities, each having different billing strategies, provide service for wireline and wireless services. Subscribers of both kinds of services typically receive separate bills for the respective telephone usage. Further, the separate billing arrangements increase the cost of the overall telephone service for the individual.
With the increased cost of having both a wireline and wireless telephone service, many individuals and families are unable to control their spending for these services. Bad credit risks prevent some people from receiving phone service because of previous payment history. To address some of these concerns, prepaid phone systems have been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,485 to Martin et al., discloses a system in which a user can call a server that communicates with the user to identify a telephone terminal and a receive a prepayment for that terminal before the user can make calls. The ""485 patent discloses individual methods of setting up a prepayment plan for either a wireline system or a wireless system. However, the ""485 patent fails to teach any method or system for combining a single prepaid account for all telephone service needs. The contents of the ""458 patent are incorporated herein.
Another group of patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,265,155, 5,359,642 and 5,440,621, all invented by Castro, teach a method and system for prepayment of telecommunications connections between a first and a second device. Castro discloses a system wherein a group of registered subscribers can prepay a bulk amount of money for telecommunication connection initiated by members of the registered group. This allows the group to obtain preferred calling rates. However, none of the Castro patents discloses any way of providing a simple and easy prepaid system that serves the entire group of telecommunication devices used by many subscribers. The contents of the ""155, ""162 and ""621 patents are incorporated herein by reference.
What is needed in the art is a system and method that enables subscribers to control and monitor the amount of money they spend on all of their telecommunications services. Users may wish to be able to control the amount of their spending by prepaying for telecommunication service on a monthly basis. Rather than having separated prepaid accounts for wired and wireless services, the present invention provides a single subscriber prepayment account associated with a plurality of subscriber telecommunication devices. This enables subscribers to control their overall spending for telecommunication services.
In order to address the deficiencies in the prior art, the present invention is proposed for enabling a user to make a single pre-payment of telecommunication services that will serve to pay for both wireline and wireless telecommunications connections. According to the first embodiment of the present invention, a system for providing prepayment of telecommunication services is provided. The system is associated with a wireless communication network and a wireline communication network and comprises an account management server communicating with both the wireless communication network and the wireline communication network, the account management server storing a value associated with the telecommunication time paid for by a subscriber, and a time-measurement module. The time-measurement module monitors the amount of time the subscriber uses both the wireless communication network and the wireline communication network and decreases the value in the subscriber account accordingly.
The system according to the first embodiment of the present invention enables a subscriber to make a single prepayment for telecommunication services. The prepaid value is applied to the wireline and/or wireless telecommunication devices. The system may be organized to enable a subscriber to have a lump value (time or dollar amount) applied to all the telecommunication devices in the account, or the subscriber may be able to allocate certain prepaid values to specific devices. In this manner, if a child has a wireless phone the parent can limit the spending on that specific wireless phone accordingly.
According to a second embodiment of the present invention, a method is proposed for providing a single pre-paid telecommunication service amount to apply to subscriber wireline and wireless telecommunication devices. The method comprises storing a prepaid value in a computer server, monitoring telecommunication time for the subscriber""s wireless and wireline telecommunication devices, and decreasing the value on the computer server according to the used telecommunication time by the subscriber.
The method according to the second embodiment of the invention may further include steps to enable the subscriber to control whether the account is arranged to limit the prepaid amount on a device by device basis on a subscriber account basis. The method of the present invention has the advantages of enabling the subscriber to control both how much money is spent on telecommunication services and control, if desired, the use of telecommunication time on a device-by-device basis.